He isn't trying to qualify for the US team, there will be a minimum standard that he will have to achieve but he isn't competing for a place with anyone else from the same country.
I know several people who have competed at the Winter Olympics in Alpine Skiing for countries that don't have a tradition in the sport.
I believe the season doesn't start until 29 November[1]
The method of calculating scoring is available at [2]. It doesn't make much sense to me though - it appears the second place competitor only gets 0.53 points?
(Now I know way more about cross country skiing than I did this morning)
I know several people who have competed at the Winter Olympics in Alpine Skiing for countries that don't have a tradition in the sport.